No. 18 BYU defeats No. 21 Colorado In Thrilling Women's Soccer Game

Ryan Curtis | BYU Athletic Communications | Posted Sep 8, 2006

BYU wins thriller before a record crowd (Photo by Mark Philbrick/BYU Photo)

Provo, Utah (Sept. 8, 2006) -- The No. 18 BYU Women's team (4-0-0) took an early lead and fought hard to win an exciting game 3-2 against No. 21 Colorado (3-1-1) in front of 4,742 fans. The sell out crowd was the second largest crowd for a women's athletic event in BYU history, beating out last weekend's attendance at the BYU vs. Stanford volleyball match.

The first half was all Cougars as BYU jumped to a quick 1-0 lead in the sixth minute. Cougar forward Carolyn Swenson served up a nice assist for fellow forward Katie Larkin who fired it past Buffalo goalkeeper Kara Linder.

Then again in the 21st minute defender Haylee Cuthbert, made a shot from the left side to put the Cougars up 2-0. BYU continued to dictate the flow of the game and scored again in the 32nd minute. Midfielder Kelsea Kakadelas sent in a shot from nearly 40 yards out. Her shot extended the Cougar lead to 3-0. Rockwood warned her team not to let up on Colorado.

"We knew that 3-0 meant nothing." Rockwood said. "We knew they were capable of scoring a lot of points in a hurry."

Colorado came out with intensity to begin the second half. In the 49th minute Buffalo defender Laura Munnelly scored on a shot that slipped through goalkeeper Erica Woodbury's hands. Rockwood thought her team got out of sink early in the second half.

"Some calls didn't go our way and we probably lost our composure a little bit but we hung in there," Rockwood said.

BYU did fight back and was able to contain one of Colorado's premier playmakers in Nikki Marshall. But at the end of the night Marshal did get a score. With just under a minute left in the game, Marshal kicked in a shot to bring Colorado within one. The Cougars kept the ball away from the net after that and came away with a great win. When talking about her game plan for tonight Rockwood knew they had to find Marshal and keep the ball away from her.

"Defense is the strength of our team. We have a young defensive line and they got some good experience tonight."

The Cougars kept Colorado's goalkeeper busy all night with nine shots on goal. Colorado had six shots on goal but Woodbury had some athletic saves to keep BYU undefeated.

BYU returns to South Stadium Saturday night to face No. 22 Fresno State at 7 p.m.